motorway miles - should i buy a phev?

[milemuncher]

Hi I do an average of 120-130 miles a day with majority motorway miles.
If I buy a phev ill be charging overnight only.

Is it worth buying one? What kind of mileage would I expect to get by charging each night only on a full tank?

Oh and has anyone driven it hard to see how little mpg/mileage it can possibly give you?

Thanks all!

 

[Hypermiler]

Hi there
Without going into the figures, I would say it isn't for you. Motorways eat the battery power very quickly and I would expect you would do just as well, if not better, with a diesel - you may not need a car of that size (?), in which case you could definitely do better.
Unless you foresee your driving pattern changing, or the option to charge during the day might come up? Maybe you could manage with a full electric car with bigger range like a Tesla Model 3 (due out 2017 if you can wait that long)?

If it is to be a company car, of course the (currently) 5% BIK rate is attractive (and the 100% WDA if it is your company) but you would need to do your sums - they have been discussed on a few threads on this forum if you can find them.

Cheers
H

 

[Ozukus]

I currently have a round trip commute of 120 miles, mostly motorway, however went for the PHEV due to the following.

I can do 32 miles cross London on the way to the office (I leave at 5.50AM now) with no risk of getting hit with a congestion charge if I do get stuck in traffic, so most of that journey should be on electric.

The office is putting in charge points next year so I will have enough to cover half my return journey on the M25 and still have the option of going cross London for the return in the event that motorway is jammed (regularly get 3 hour journeys).

All weekend, public holidays and days off will be on electric, along with the simple things like ducking round the shops or picking missus up from station.

I will get stung a bit this year due to no charge points at the office, however based on above I believe I will better my current cars average of 65MPG.

If you are on a company car scheme then the £2,400 plus you will probably save on BIK is a lot of petrol and if your office does introduce charge points then you would be covered 50% each way, so should be a reasonable MPG.

 

[baldboater]

For what its worth,

I have a 120 mile commute 95% on motorways and only charge at home overnight.

What I have found is that if I drive at 70-80 MPH I average about 35MPG and get about 300 miles out of a tank of juice. (it takes me approx 1 hour to do the 60 miles journey)

if you are not in a rush and drive at 50-60 mph you will easily get 50+mpg and a range of 400+ miles (this takes 1 hour 20 to do the journey)

My best tank I averaged 53.6 MPG and got 465 miles out of the tank. To get good MPG - on outward journey I use the save option once on motorway and switch back to EV when in traffic around leeds. on way home just leave in EV (coming out of leeds) and see how far i get before the ICE kicks in.

My advice is if you dont have to rush then the economy is acceptable but if need to put your footdown you need a diesel - although do your sums if it is a company car.

 

[milemuncher]

Thanks
I do about 20 miles local roads before the motorway so was hoping that would help.
Doesn't the ev mode stay on as long as you stay below 75 mph?
And if needs be then the ice kicks in to top up the battery so as if was to act as a generator rather than power the wheels?

 

[Cuzza]

I've had my GX4h since mid August now and have covered just over 4700 miles in that time travelling between home and the schools that I support in my role as a freelance school improvement consultant..............average about 130/140 miles a day, mostly on motorways, with charging only available at home.

I run the car through my company and therefore can take advantage of the BIK savings and that was the principle attraction for me.

Averaging about 300 to 340 miles between fill ups and tend to sit with cruise control on at about 75mph on the motorway with car in Eco mode and B3 all the time which gives me an average fuel economy figure so far (not including the cost of charging) of 41.3 mpg.

Not what the dealer told me I'd get of about 60mpg but I tend not to believe dealers. Certainly compares favourably with the Vauxhall Insignia SRi diesel estate that I ran for the last 3 years which averaged about 42mpg.

HTH

Jon

 

[aitchjaybee]

Thanks
I do about 20 miles local roads before the motorway so was hoping that would help.
Doesn't the ev mode stay on as long as you stay below 75 mph?

a bit less, and depends how heavy your right foot is. The ICE fires up to provide bhp boost
And if needs be then the ice kicks in to top up the battery so as if was to act as a generator rather than power the wheels?

no, it will fire up and drive the wheels (4wd). It can act as a generator if you press the dedicated 'charge' button, but it's a 120bhp 2.0 litre petrol engine by default.

we have/need 2 cars and rather than his/hers, we split day by day on the journey required. If I was doing your commute, or going to a remote office, I'd take the diesel Golf not the phev.

Take a long test drive, best way to see if you like it. Then it's less about the pure numbers.

 

[CJ1045]

If you press the 'Save' button then you stop the car using EV mode and switch to petrol engine - best for motorways on a longer than 32 mile journey.

 

[maby]

...

no, it will fire up and drive the wheels (4wd). It can act as a generator if you press the dedicated 'charge' button, but it's a 120bhp 2.0 litre petrol engine by default.

....

That is a bit misleading. There is no proper gearbox between the petrol engine and the wheels, and there is no propshaft, so the engine can never power the car directly in 4WD and is can only power the car directly at relatively high speeds.

It's default behaviour is to run in electric mode, drawing its power from the battery pack, until the battery is flat and then to switch to petrol engine mode. By default, it will not make any serious attempt at charging a flat battery from the engine, though it will dump any surplice power into the battery rather than waste it.

Without a mechanical gear box, it can only couple the engine mechanically to the wheels at relatively high speeds - it has effectively got 4th gear only and some sort of clutch mechanism that allows it to engage that for high speed cruising. At lower speeds, it uses an electrical transmission - the petrol engine drives a generator and the output of this drives the electric motors. When the battery is flat and the car is moving at speeds below something like 50mph, this is the way it moves. At higher speeds, the engine is mechanically engaged to the front wheels, while the rear wheels are driven via the electric motor drawing power from the generator (assuming that the battery is flat).

The "Charge" and "Save" buttons allow you to modify this behaviour if you want.

 

[user 258]

Hi
Just to clarify. At speeds over 40mph/64kmh the engine will almost always be driving the front wheels directly with the electric motors providing extra help if required.
Kind regards
Mark
(Edited to state that I am referring to when the engine is running only i.e. save or depleted battery)

 

[maddogsetc]

Hi
Just to clarify. At speeds over 40mph/64kmh the engine will almost always be driving the front wheels directly with the electric motors providing extra help if required.
Kind regards
Mark

That's only true if you are out of battery or using Save surely? In my experience as long as you have battery available it'll run pure EV up to about 70mph by preference.

 

[maby]

Hi
Just to clarify. At speeds over 40mph/64kmh the engine will almost always be driving the front wheels directly with the electric motors providing extra help if required.
Kind regards
Mark

That's only true if you are out of battery or using Save surely? In my experience as long as you have battery available it'll run pure EV up to about 70mph by preference.

I agree - in my (admittedly limited) experience, the power flow graphic shows the car in pure EV most of the time right up to 70mph

 

[user 258]

Hi
Just to clarify. At speeds over 40mph/64kmh the engine will almost always be driving the front wheels directly with the electric motors providing extra help if required.
Kind regards
Mark

That's only true if you are out of battery or using Save surely? In my experience as long as you have battery available it'll run pure EV up to about 70mph by preference.

I agree - in my (admittedly limited) experience, the power flow graphic shows the car in pure EV most of the time right up to 70mph

Hi
You are totally correct. I was referring to Maby's description about when the engine would drive the wheels but from my phone it was to difficult to quote. I was just referring to when the engine was running.
Sorry for the confusion.
Kind regards
Mark

 

[greendwarf]

Hi
Just to clarify. At speeds over 40mph/64kmh the engine will almost always be driving the front wheels directly with the electric motors providing extra help if required.
Kind regards
Mark

I thought that if you are not in Save mode and there is battery power (above the minimum) left, it will use that first rather than the ICE.

 

[maddogsetc]

Groundhog day!!!

 

[milemuncher]

Out of interest what's the consumption at 90 or 100 mph?
Also if your speed is above 74mph lets say 85 and you lift off the accelerator but are still moving at say 80 is the ice still running or is it off and regening?

And while I'm running on ice does the battery charge too? Or only if you press the charge button?

 

[Hypermiler]

Out of interest what's the consumption at 90 or 100 mph?

I don't think many people will have tried that :shock: :mrgreen:
There is no instantaneous mpg readout so a bit difficult to tell unless someone has an extra monitor of some sort...
H

 

[milemuncher]

Out of interest what's the consumption at 90 or 100 mph?

I don't think many people will have tried that :shock: :mrgreen:
There is no instantaneous mpg readout so a bit difficult to tell unless someone has an extra monitor of some sort...
H

Thought not just wanted to gauge what the lowest consumption would be :shock:

 

[aitchjaybee]

...

no, it will fire up and drive the wheels (4wd). It can act as a generator if you press the dedicated 'charge' button, but it's a 120bhp 2.0 litre petrol engine by default.

....

That is a bit misleading. There is no proper gearbox between the petrol engine and the wheels, and there is no propshaft, so the engine can never power the car directly in 4WD and is can only power the car directly at relatively high speeds.

It's default behaviour is to run in electric mode, drawing its power from the battery pack, until the battery is flat and then to switch to petrol engine mode. By default, it will not make any serious attempt at charging a flat battery from the engine, though it will dump any surplice power into the battery rather than waste it.

Without a mechanical gear box, it can only couple the engine mechanically to the wheels at relatively high speeds - it has effectively got 4th gear only and some sort of clutch mechanism that allows it to engage that for high speed cruising. At lower speeds, it uses an electrical transmission - the petrol engine drives a generator and the output of this drives the electric motors. When the battery is flat and the car is moving at speeds below something like 50mph, this is the way it moves. At higher speeds, the engine is mechanically engaged to the front wheels, while the rear wheels are driven via the electric motor drawing power from the generator (assuming that the battery is flat).

The "Charge" and "Save" buttons allow you to modify this behaviour if you want.

Thanks for putting the detail into your reply, and happy to be corrected. Milemuncher I didn't mean to mislead.

The question was at speeds of 75mph so whilst I agree you are right in your reply, I was trying to keep it short and simple - to differentiate against the ampera say, which can't drive the wheels. it's a bit harsh calling it misleading when the engine will do exactly as I said and drive the wheels at 75mph...just not 4wd. In his post the question was all about high speeds and at 75mph the phev does drive the wheels. But I've also learned something new, after nearly 3 months of daily use, I thought it drove 4wd even on petrol so cheers for the tip. Just goes to show how much there is to learn on this vehicle.

 

[milemuncher]

So....
I managed to get an extended test drive on the 4h.
About £36 worth of fuel at 1.24p.
So I got about 260 miles which got me 40mpg on average. This was 2 return commutes of around 120 miles with the added little trip with 2 full charges not 4. One charge on one end with about 6 miles local travel and the remaining motorway. Then again a return trip uncharged with the charge button pressed I got 36mpg. Then back again uncharged but with what was charged using the trip I got 40 mpg.
Then I charged it. Left the house on full charge and travelled 60miles on eco.
This gave me 60mpg.
The car was great and comfy to drive and I love the idea of driving an electric car its great when you see the indicator showing you that the car is running on battery and not engine and the regen set to 5 is pretty impressive.
I just wished that Mitsubishi could do a diesel hybrid. I don't think the phev in the petrol hybrid form could give me what I need for the daily motorway commute. However the car is great and I would love to own one if I did a shorter commute.
The mmcs is a little slow at times to react to buttons but I could live with that.
I had issues pairing my phone with the Bluetooth.
Overall I think the car is great and I really want one.
Maybe if I could charge at both ends of my commute id consider it even more.
Well done Mitsubishi! I just wish I could drive a little more gentle!